Russia expects the OSCE Mission to Ukraine to give an objective report on its trip to Sloviansk, destroyed by the Ukrainian army, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“When the Ukrainian leadership chose the policy towards resolving the crisis by force true information is significant. We note the OSCE readiness for direct contacts with militia,” Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

“Russia notes certain shortcomings in the work of OSCE observers. The mission reports insignificant facts and hushes up the use of heavy weapons against the south-eastern cities,” he said.

A ceasefire in Ukraine should be stable and guaranteed. This is the main condition which the Kiev authorities have failed to meet until recently,” he added.

"Russia wants to achieve the earliest settlement of the internal political crisis in Ukraine. The earliest implementation of the Berlin agreements, which first and foremost concern a ceasefire regime, should be the top priority,” Lukashevich went on to say.

“Regrettably, Kiev has failed to meet this main condition yet. The punitive operation, which is becoming broader and more destructive, continues,” Lukashevich stressed.

Russians in Ukraine

The political crisis in Ukraine led to the formation of many armed groups on its territory. Infographics by ITAR-TASS

Reports about Russians killed in southeast Ukraine are part of Ukraine’s propaganda designed to show Russia’s alleged involvement in the armed conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich said.

Asked whether the Russian Foreign Ministry had information about the number of Russian nationals who died in Ukraine’s Donbas region, Lukashevich told a Ukrainian journalist who had posed that question that he did know such figures.

“I do not know this statistics and I think that it most likely reflects the abilities of Ukrainian propaganda whose task is to show that we are fighting on the side of the self-defense forces. But this is not so at all,” Lukashevich stressed.